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In October 2004, the PACE adopted its Resolution #1402, which in particular provided for the organization of a special roundtable on the political process in the Chechen Republic.The first meeting of the Roundtable was held in Strasbourg on March 21, 2005. Among the participants there were numerous members of the Assembly, a large delegation from the Chechen Republic headed by President Alkhanov, and a few independent experts. No other political forces from Chechnya were represented at the meeting. Representatives of two Russian human rights NGOs, Svetlana Gannushkina of the Human Rights Center “Memorial” and Tanya Lokshina of the Center “Demos” took part in the Roundtable in the capacity of rapporteurs and delivered their reports on the situation in Chechnya at the start of the meeting. (For the motivations behind their joint decision to abide by the request of the organizers and fulfill the aforesaid functions at the Roundtable, please see: ) Having analyzed the proceedings and the results of the first Roundtable meeting, HRC “Memorial” and Center “Demos” came to the following conclusions.

1) According to the Resolution #1402 of the Assembly, the said roundtable was created in order to provide “for the organisation of an exchange of view with political parties and politicians from the Chechen Republic and the federal authorities of Russia.” Therefore, its core objective is to organize a discussion on the political process in the Chechen Republic.2) Issues relevant to political settlement cannot be fully separated from the issues relevant to the human rights situation in Chechnya. Even more so, any attempts to resolve the conflict by political means should start with real - as opposed to declarative - steps by the authorities at all levels to normalize the human rights situation in the republic. We are certain that the organizers of the roundtable also share this view, and it is for this very reasons that our representatives accepted the invitation to the first meeting of the Roundtable.3) A roundtable focused on political issues can yield some results only if among its participants there are diverse political actors who promote varied ideas and approaches. Within the frames of such a roundtable, those actors can work towards finding common agenda and possible compromises, as well as establishing “the rules of the game.” It appears to be essential that those separatists who reject terrorism take part in the Roundtable.4) Representatives of non-political human rights organizations cannot act as a party in the negotiations aimed at finding political solutions to the crisis.5) At this Roundtable devoted to political issues, representatives of human rights organizations can and should act in the capacity of experts on one particularly important aspect of the political process - i.e. the humanitarian aspect.6) At the first meeting of the roundtable, only one political force was represented, namely “the power party”; there was no dialogues among different politicians.7) In the circumstances described above, the representatives of the human rights organizations were assigned a role which is unnatural to them - they practically acted as a party to a political dialogue. For this reason, quite a number of politicians and media outlets formed a wrong opinion of the human rights defenders' objective and asserted at the Roundtable Russian human rights NGOs spoke on behalf of the separatists. Those statements and comments do not reflect the real state of affairs.8) At the same time, we believe that the participation of the human rights defenders in the first meeting of the Roundtable was productive. They reported to the participants of the roundtable the conviction of Russian human rights NGOs that a political settlement in Chechnya is not possible without a significant improvement of the human rights situation in the region. We also believe it important that they were able to publicly voice the necessity for the engagement of other political forces within the framework of the Roundtable.9) We view the first meeting of the Roundtable as a new possibility to open a dialogue between different political forces. However, if in the future the Roundtable continues working in the format of its first meeting, in our opinion, it will become meaningless. The Roundtable can yield positive results only in case the circle of participants will be broadened to include representatives of OTHER political forces of Chechnya in addition to those under the wing of the authorities. Among them, there should be representatives of the separatists. To stress, at the first meeting of the roundtable this issue was raised not only by the human rights defenders but also by Rudolf Bindig, rapportuer of the Assembly on the human rights situation in Chechnya, and some other members of the PACE.10) The assertions by some participants of the Roundtable that in Chechnya there can be “no opposition to President Alkhanov whose power brought the nation together” undermine the very objective of the Roundtable and its future work.11) The assertions by some participants that the Roundtable should only focus on the social and economic problems and humanitarian aid also undermine the objective of the Roundtable.12) The roundtable is devoted to the issues relevant to the political process in the Chechen Republic, to a dialogue between politicians. A frank debate on these problems cannot be substituted with a discussion on social issues, no matter how important such a discussion is in itself. Likewise, a dialogue between different political forces cannot be substituted with a dialogue between the authorities and the human rights defenders.13) A dialogue between the authorities and the human rights defenders is very important as such. Our organizations have always supported this approach. In our opinion, one of the March 21 Roundtable was the opening of a dialogue between our organizations and the authorities of the Chechen Republic on a range of problems relevant to human rights and reconstruction of Chechnya. Is special roundtables are organized to focus on these issues, we will be glad to take part in them.14) As concerns the participation of our representatives in the future meetings of the given Roundtable, it is conditioned by the broadening of the circle of participants to include representatives of different political forces of Chechnya, with those separatists who reject terrorism among them.